It had been hours, and yet, the sun hadn't moved. It just hung there frozen in the sky.
'That's not normal, right?'
It most definitely wasn't a common sight to someone like Theo who lived on a world with a strict day night cycle.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and cast a quick glance around. He had long left the black sea behind, and now all he could see was the vast gray desert plain for dozens, and dozens of miles. And that was... strange.
In a world where he should be encountering spawn left and right, especially in a place devoid of life like this one, he should have seen at least one by this point.
'How haven't I come across any then? Are they all dead or something?'
Unlikely, but at this point, according to everything he's learnt and had experienced, like time flowing backwords, that strange sense of nostalgia, something like that, as ridiculous as it sounds, wasn't entirely impossible.
But that lack of impossibility wasn't enough to ease his growing anxiety. He was so conscious of one suddenly appearing that the mere thought of one randomly appearing sent a shiver down his spine.
For the sake of his sanity though, he chose to ignore it.
"Focus on the goal," he reminded himself. "Find shelter, find food, and then you can rest."
With that, he continued his arduous, never ending journey through the gray plains.
***
Many more hours later, nearly a full day had passed. With the scorching heat from the sun above drying out his skin and the burning sand at his feet leaving larger and larger blisters with each step, Theo felt the last of the water in his throat and skin dry up. The soles of his feet stung with every step he took, and with every passing second, he would curse at the world in his mind.
"What did I even do to deserve this shit?" he asked himself repeatedly.
From the moment he found Maria lying on his bed on the brink of death till this point, no, even longer than that. From the moment he was born into this hellscape of a world, nothing had gone his way. And while that was true, things took an extreme turn for the worse that day for some reason.
It felt as if the world itself, as strange as it sounds, was punishing him for something.
'What have I done to deserve that though? Exist?'
Whatever the reason for his constant struggles, he couldn't really do anything about it even if he did know. Because knowing why something is happening and who, or what is doing it are two very different things.
Utterly, Short of breath and exhausted, Theo finally fell to his knees. At this point, he even laboured to do something as trivial as blink his nearly dried up eyes. Every breath he took now felt like he was inhaling fire. His throat, tongue and skin, his whole body was now practically a desert of its own.
Theo could feel the blisters on his feet throbbing, each painful pulse of pain a reminder of his relentless trek through this harsh, unforgiving landscape. Finally falling over, he stared at the sun and moon as they hung motionless in the sky.
'Well, look on the bright side, I wasn't ripped to shreds by a spawn....'
Theo lay there for hours and hours, letting his body succumb to not only the heat, but the hunger that now plagued him. Eventually, time lost all meaning to him in this desolate place. He had no way of knowing how long he had been wandering, but was sure that it had exceeded thirty six hours.
The gnawing hunger in his stomach and the dryness of his throat were enough evidence for him. He could feel the miniscule amount of strength he had left slowly waning, as with each heartbeat came a churn of his empty stomach. The growls at this point were echoing louder than the beat of his heart, which itself had become a countdown to his inevitable end.
"Fuck! So this is how I go?..." he mumbled to himself with his coarse voice. "...Alone in a godforsaken desert, with nothing but my own damn thoughts for company? Why? I've fought tooth and nail just to survive, and for what? To die like a damn dog in the dirt? Is this some kind of sick joke? I've lost everything! Maria, my home, my life! And now I'm supposed to just lie here and accept my fate?"
The world around Theo did nothing but listen and watch him suffer, feeling indifferent to his suffering. He tried to sit up, pushing hard against the shifting sand, but no matter how much strength he put into his hands, there was just not enough. Another stretch of time passed, and Theo had given up, laying readily on the ground and staring at the sun above.
At the edges of his vision, a haze began creeping in as a strange sense of calm washed over him. After hours... no years of struggles and suffering, Perhaps this was it. Perhaps he was always destined to die here, in this barren wasteland, to be forgotten by the world.
'The thought that being my reality, is both terrifying, and oddly comforting.'
Theo had fought so hard all just to survive in this cruel reality, but maybe, maybe it was just time for him to let go. With a final, shuddering breath, he sank into the sand, his body completely surrendering to the exhaustion that had been building for hours. The heat of the sun faded, replaced by a coolness he had craved for. He felt weightless, and his mind felt clear, it was as if he were floating away from all the pain, suffering, and despair.
His eyelids got heavier and heavier, and soon the only things going through his mind were his regrets. Regrets about life...
'I should have done more! I should have cared more!'
...Regrets about people...
'I should have... spoken to more people! Made friends! Experienced... what it means to be... normal!'
...And finally, regrets about the only person e could ever call his family.
'Maria...' he whispered as his consciousness slipped away. 'I'm sorry.... for not showing you... for not telling you... how much you meant to me.'
In those final moments, as consciousness slipped away, he thought of Maria one last time. And then, with a gentle sigh, the world faded to black. The vast, gray, and hellish desert remained silent. The sun still hanging motionless in the sky, and time trudged on, as if in that moment, it had forgotten Theo and his struggles.
Suddenly, in sky, a brilliant flash of light emerged and time once again crawled backwards. Theo's corpse re-animated, his body returned to its healthy state as he trudged backwards, the hunger thirst and fatigue vanished and he returned to the moment he awoke in the depths. Back to the moment he awoke from the deep slumber.
Back to the beginning of his trial.
Once he reached this point, time slowed to a crawl, stopped entirely and began moving forward again.
Theo's eyes shot open, and like he did the first time this happened, before he could even think about what was going on, he raced in the opposite direction of whatever creature was below.